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Restoration Coup
The Restoration Coup, also known as the Palace Revolution of 1031, was a bloodless coup which ended the struggling Harding Government and brought Archduchess Theodora to power as Empress, largely restoring the pre-revolution state of affairs. Background The government of Premier Ewart Harding, despite initial popularity in having done away with the widely-despised Emperor Tyenn, had seen it's popularity and ability to govern plummet, especially after the collapse of the Empire outside Kymuria proper. The vast majority of people hated the new government for its poor handling of the economy, rampant corruption, secularism, and reliance on the army to maintain law and order. Any pretense of constitutional rule was destroyed when Harding forcibly closed the Noble and Common Chambers in 1031. Harding's government was essentially kept in power by the sympathetic Grand Marshal Petrarch Ludwig-Gill. He was the sixth Grand Marshal appointed by Harding due to his republican sympathies, but he was increasingly lax in maintaining the integrity of the monarchist and increasingly insubordinate upper ranks, who had a much greater influence and popularity with the rank and file, most of whom had joined the army before the coup, and had sworn the customary oath of loyalty to the Imperial cause. In late 1030KF, Marshal Emile De Meza formed the underground Military Salvation Movement (MSM) comprised of himself, his staff and a majority of regional and city military staff, plus funding from the church and backing from displaced nobility. At their first meeting in Krahull, it was decided that Archduchess Theodora would be the presumptive Empress, and that her husband, the Archduke Maximilian, would remain a consort. Preparations Although many of the MSM's members wished for a legalist solution, De Meza convinced them that a coup d'etat would be the best option, an attitude solidified by Harding's confiscation of noble lands and wealth in early 1031KF. There was a considerable delay in planning and unity due to Harding's own security service, the Constitutional Service, attempting to clamp down on the group, postponing the next meetings until late 1033. Another complication was the fact that De Meza was sacked as Chief of Staff and instead made military governor of Krahull. Although the chance of such an event was minuscule given the reactionary mood of the population, many of the plotters feared that if the coup failed to swiftly take the capital, a civil war would break out. Most Kymurian military districts were under the control of officers connected to the plot, or at least apathetic to it, however only one of the five Saffira military districts was staffed by an MSM member, while the rest were all personal allies of Harding. What had been the Imperial Palace Guard were difficult to contact, though a small fraction of them (600) still guarded the empty Imperial City. Their commander was a militant republican, but the plotters reached Sergeant-Major Robert Japp, who informed them that the guard would be willing to mutiny in favour of an Imperial restoration. The MSM now effectively had to hope that the 20,000 troops in Saffira would mutiny along with the Imperial Guard. In the Month of Ice 1034, the Admiralty gave full support to the plot, as did Theodora and Maximilian, who began secretly formulating their own political program in anticipation. The coup d'état was meticulously planned for the 9th Day on the Month of Plenty, supposedly the date King Huw ascended the throne. It was arranged that a week before, Theodora would assemble as much of the nobility and clergy as she could at her palace in Saffira, while 12 monarchist generals and 17 colonels would arrive in the city to take command of the hoped-for mutiny. It was agreed that military garrisons on the Ubrus isles would officially declare a revolt against the Harding government at 5.00am, and mainland divisions would follow suit at 9.00am, to give the navy time to co-ordinate their mutiny in-between the army. The Saffira MSM would be the last troops to mutiny, at midday, at which point De Meza, at the head of the mutinous troops, would formally ask the government to resign. A balloon was hired to drop monarchist pamphlets over Saffira to inform the troops and civilians of the coup once it had begun. There was a final argument between De Meza and several nobles over whether to involve the Black Talons and other right-wing paramilitaries, but De Meza won out, arguing that the Black Talons were firstly, riddled with republican and leftist spies, and secondly despised by much of the army for their lack of discipline. The First Day At 5.00am on the agreed day, the garrison of the Ubrus Isles went into revolt. It seems that some Agrarianist and anarchist organisations caught wind of the potential coup, and so the shipping port of Agrye was temporarily barricaded by some leftist militia, but they were at once crushed by the mutinous garrison. Harding, who had put down three coup attempts by this point, remained confident in his loyalist troops, and underestimated how well-organised the plotters of this attempt were. At 9.00am, the divisions (10,000 men each) stationed in Krahull, Coppannis, Cascori, Thayfast, Cranook-Tar, Fero, Arkey and Oldsra revolted, meeting little to no opposition. In Copa, the Agrarianist parties attempted to convince the trade unions to resist the takeover, but since the Copa uprising, unions there had been dominated by the staunchly conservative Battenburg Council, who campaigned for paternalist protections for workers, and did not see any reason to oppose attempts on the unpopular Harding government which had waged war on the city during the aforementioned uprising. In the countryside, Kymurian forces were more thinly spread, but encountered scattered resistance from remnants of the All-Kymurian Liberal Republicans, seventeen of which died in sporadic action. At midday, the fateful moment upon which all hopes, loyalist and rebel, republican and monarchist, rested. The 600-strong Imperial Guard, stationed in and around the Imperial City, arrested, then shot their commanding colonel, while the 10,000 strong South Saffira Metropolitan Division marched out of their barracks and began the three-mile journey to the Ministerial Complex, their target. Harding, from the Lapana Palace, took direct control of the People's Republican Irregulars, a paramilitary, who, along with a few hundred students, ambushed the marching troops and drove them inside the Maryland Street Post Office, where they held out for another hour. The hired balloon arrived over Saffira and began dropping pamphlets, which galvanised the nostalgic and reactionary crowds into action. A "citizens army" of 30,000 successfully beat back the republican paramilitary and joined them on their march towards the Ministerial Complex. At this point, Harding began to panic. Unable to contact any of the garrisons outside Saffira, he summoned Grand Marshal Ludwig-Gill to his chambers, who promptly arrived, and the Saffira Chief of Staff, who Ludwig-Gill told Harding had gone over to the rebels. Although Harding was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, the Grand Marshal managed to inform him how truly desperate the situation was, that no substantial force outside of Saffira remained loyal to them, and that the four remaining divisions within Saffira might well defect to save their own lives. Between them, Harding and Ludwig-Gill agreed that they would not give arms to the agrarianist and anarchist groups who might be willing to help them, but little else. Harding, following his state of nervous tension, fell into a "depressive collapse" and suggested nothing new. Following this, they received news that the westernmost division had arrested its commander and joined the rebellion. A white-flag emissary arrived and informed the two that unless they and their loyal troops surrendered within the next hour, active combat would commence. The loyalists now controlled only north and east Saffira. At some point within the next hour, Harding, disguised in a military uniform and long coat, boarded a car requisitioned from the Zeor Embassy, and fled Saffira with the intent of going into exile in Anjuin. He was eventually stopped at Crennisford and arrested. Grand Marshal Ludwig-Gill assumed control of the loyalist forces. At 2.34pm, Another garrison, this time the North Saffira Cavalry Regiment, declared itself in support of the coup, and paraded towards the shrinking loyalist perimeter. Around this time, De Meza arrived in the city, and was mobbed by crowds of cheering troops and civilians. He was carried by the crowd into the captured Ministerial Complex, from where he proclaimed the temporary National Military Salvation Government. He personally met Grand Marshal Ludwig-Gill, who surrendered the loyalist troops, though not before another division had declared for the coup.